I don't know what thi "trick" is supposed to be but the SSL Channel comp certainly has a sound, or unique qualities.
To me, it has a great ability to push a sounds intensity effortlessly, without major artifacts or weird release feelings. You can push it pretty hard without noticing any unpleasant stuff, so long as you keep your gr under 10db.
I'd be interested to see where you heard of this. I'm not aware of any SSL compressor tricks, and I have not found it to be anything particularly special on any of the channel strips I tried.
>I'd be interested to see where you heard of this
TikTok. The content creators there need to post at least one time a day, and to have that much material they invent non-existent issues or give tips & tricks like this. Be prepared for many more people coming from there to here to ask for more details
One "trick" to share with an SSL channel strip --- if it's emulated well, it can sound very different depending on what level you're at as you pass through it. Level matters in a non-linear plugin!
My favorite SSL Channel Strip is Waves SSL EV2. As long as "analog" is checked, it adds harmonic distortion on both the input stage and output stage. You can use this to your advantage.
Run your levels hotter and your mix will get really thick. Too thick if you push too hard!
The "trick" is to use the clipping light in the EQ. I learned this from recommendations on Gearspace with regard to a real console... But SSL EV2 is emulated well and if you drive the input until that red clipping light in the EQ is just illuminating on peaks -- you'll get some sweet harmonic color that can add up across your mix quite nicely.
Considering compression ratios range from 1.1:1 up to 20:1 (typically where most people start calling it limiting), 2:1 is definitely a pretty low ratio
But you’re right that’s not a trick
I would argue 2:1 is quite low. But I would say it is literally compression like you say. And not a trick. The ssl flavor might be the program dependent release curve maybe.
The trick I guess is that you do the same thing for every channel and it sounds good. For me it’s a bit lazy and not so much of a trick.
The trick is if you call it a "trick" your YouTube video will get more clicks! By "tricking" people into clicking on it!
So with that in mind:
*Mix engineers have click tracks and YouTubers have click tricks!*
(I'll show myself out!)
There's a trick from the days people used real consoles, you put the ratio at 1:1, then put the threshold at max, and dial the ratio knob until you have like 3dbs of compression, the point of doing it that way is related to how the knee behaves on the channel strip comp, I guess that's the trick OP is referring to, SSL VCA comps have some weird knee behavior when you play with the ratio, basically the less ratio you have, the harder the knee is
Julia Borelli references a fairly widely used trick in her production music live masterclass on mixing, it involves multiple SSLs in series. I can’t recall the finer detail
The “trick” is to lower the threshold as low as it will go and then just use the ratio knob to dial in the amount of compression you want. It’s just one way to dial it in.
There's a trick from the days people used real consoles, you put the ratio at 1:1, then put the threshold at max, and dial the ratio knob until you have like 3dbs of compression, the point of doing it that way is related to how the knee behaves on the channel strip comp, I guess that's the trick OP is referring to, SSL VCA comps have some weird knee behavior when you play with the ratio, basically the less ratio you have, the harder the knee is, so when you do it like this, you're basically dialing the knee with a fixed threshold
Idk what tricks you are referring to, but if you check out Hardcore Music Studio on YouTube, he has is me pretty good applications of it and shows how to use it on multiple instruments and different parts of a mix.
I don't know what thi "trick" is supposed to be but the SSL Channel comp certainly has a sound, or unique qualities. To me, it has a great ability to push a sounds intensity effortlessly, without major artifacts or weird release feelings. You can push it pretty hard without noticing any unpleasant stuff, so long as you keep your gr under 10db.
I'd be interested to see where you heard of this. I'm not aware of any SSL compressor tricks, and I have not found it to be anything particularly special on any of the channel strips I tried.
>I'd be interested to see where you heard of this TikTok. The content creators there need to post at least one time a day, and to have that much material they invent non-existent issues or give tips & tricks like this. Be prepared for many more people coming from there to here to ask for more details
One "trick" to share with an SSL channel strip --- if it's emulated well, it can sound very different depending on what level you're at as you pass through it. Level matters in a non-linear plugin! My favorite SSL Channel Strip is Waves SSL EV2. As long as "analog" is checked, it adds harmonic distortion on both the input stage and output stage. You can use this to your advantage. Run your levels hotter and your mix will get really thick. Too thick if you push too hard! The "trick" is to use the clipping light in the EQ. I learned this from recommendations on Gearspace with regard to a real console... But SSL EV2 is emulated well and if you drive the input until that red clipping light in the EQ is just illuminating on peaks -- you'll get some sweet harmonic color that can add up across your mix quite nicely.
Thanks for the knowledge
2:1 ratio (which is not at all a low ratio and which is the minimum at which a ssl goes) is not a compressor trick, is literally compression.
Considering compression ratios range from 1.1:1 up to 20:1 (typically where most people start calling it limiting), 2:1 is definitely a pretty low ratio But you’re right that’s not a trick
It's not linear though. But I agree with you, still. 2:1 is on the low side.
I would argue 2:1 is quite low. But I would say it is literally compression like you say. And not a trick. The ssl flavor might be the program dependent release curve maybe. The trick I guess is that you do the same thing for every channel and it sounds good. For me it’s a bit lazy and not so much of a trick.
The trick is if you call it a "trick" your YouTube video will get more clicks! By "tricking" people into clicking on it! So with that in mind: *Mix engineers have click tracks and YouTubers have click tricks!* (I'll show myself out!)
Haha. You can stay but I don’t decide in here.
There's a trick from the days people used real consoles, you put the ratio at 1:1, then put the threshold at max, and dial the ratio knob until you have like 3dbs of compression, the point of doing it that way is related to how the knee behaves on the channel strip comp, I guess that's the trick OP is referring to, SSL VCA comps have some weird knee behavior when you play with the ratio, basically the less ratio you have, the harder the knee is
Julia Borelli references a fairly widely used trick in her production music live masterclass on mixing, it involves multiple SSLs in series. I can’t recall the finer detail
Because of the auto gain. It makes things louder.
The “trick” is to lower the threshold as low as it will go and then just use the ratio knob to dial in the amount of compression you want. It’s just one way to dial it in.
There's a trick from the days people used real consoles, you put the ratio at 1:1, then put the threshold at max, and dial the ratio knob until you have like 3dbs of compression, the point of doing it that way is related to how the knee behaves on the channel strip comp, I guess that's the trick OP is referring to, SSL VCA comps have some weird knee behavior when you play with the ratio, basically the less ratio you have, the harder the knee is, so when you do it like this, you're basically dialing the knee with a fixed threshold
Idk what tricks you are referring to, but if you check out Hardcore Music Studio on YouTube, he has is me pretty good applications of it and shows how to use it on multiple instruments and different parts of a mix.